The Happy Commuter

Musings of a rat race runner

Friday, October 05, 2012

Arrested Development - or How Local Politics Works

North Herts District Council’s decision to sign over the
development of Hitchin town centre to self-styled “property solutions” firm
Simons, on a 250-year, lease
may not just be against the will of local people – but also against the law! In
its Summer newsletter, local body Hitchin Forum notes that the original OJEU
tender made a clear distinction between “enhancement” and “development” – and
identified specific areas marked for each – with the intention of preserving as
much of the historic character of the town as possible. However, the Council’s
Leader, Lynda Needham, has now penned a letter to local people, rewriting history by
claiming that the plan has always been full-scale development.

Local Conservative Councillor David Leal-Bennett is talking
tough, announcing that is time for Simons “to put up or pull out” but his Tory
chums don’t seem to share his views, refusing to respond to FOI requests from
Hitchin Forum about the deal. The sorry saga has been prolonged because Simons
says it is feeling the effects of the recession – and because the key
Churchgate area (“Area 1”) remains leased to another firm, Hammersmatch
Properties. Now Hammersmatch has come up with a new proposal for Churchgate
which could derail the Council’s schemes
and see Simons walk away completely – seven years on from signing the deal!
Such a waste of time and money would be an embarrassing irony for a Council
which boasts, in its own Summer newsletter, on resisting “the extravagance of
the previous government.”

The nub of the issue is concern over the impact of development
on ten-thousand year-old St Mary’s Church, The splendid view of the church from
the main traffic route on Queen Street, and the residential properties around
it – highlighted in the Planning Brief and therefore protected by EU Law - would
be ruined by Simon’s plans to usher in another God, Mammon, by building a department
store in front of it on St Mary’s Square (“Area 4”). As Andrew Wearmouth of
Hitchin Forum wearily points out, “if the Council approves a scheme that does
not comply with the Planning Brief and the OJEU advert, it seems that it will
be breaking EU Law on two separate counts.”

The efforts, of local residents and businesses, to prevent
Hitchin becoming a “clone town” continue, but received a further blow with the
arrival, in another part of town, of . . . Tesco. Treble Clubcard points all
round!